Prof. Nimi Wariboko interviewed in The Conversation
The following is an excerpt from The Conversation US’s article “TB Joshua scandal: the forces that shaped Nigeria’s mega pastor and made him untouchable” by Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics Nimi Wariboko. Click here to read the full article.
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Why do people believe in prophecies and miracles?
First of all, Pentecostals believe in a two-tier world: physical and spiritual. They believe the spiritual controls the physical and that those with charismatic gifts can access the spiritual world to extract information to explain, predict and control outcomes in the physical world. So, there’s a quest for information from the invisible realm. I called this “the spell of the invisible” in my book Nigerian Pentecostalism.
Second, we have to look at Pentecostal epistemology – its philosophy. Nigerian Pentecostals beautifully render it as, “It does not make sense, but it makes spirit.” This means their decisions might seem irrational, but they are all good, reasonable and ethical through a spiritual lens. I address this issue in another book, The Pentecostal Hypothesis.
Finally, there is a deep belief in what I’ve named “the Pentecostal principle”: that the new can emerge amid ongoing social processes. The idea of the coming of the new, miracles that can transform the present situation of believers. We can’t ignore the role of economic hardship and poverty in heightening the vulnerability of citizens to religious charlatanism and authoritarianism.
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